Theme · christological
Incarnation
The incarnation is anticipated in every Old Testament moment where God draws near to human experience — walking in Eden, appearing to Abraham at Mamre, dwelling in the tabernacle. Isaiah promises a child called 'God with Us.' John's prologue announces its fulfillment with cosmic weight: the Word who was with God and was God became flesh and dwelt among us. Paul adds that Christ, though in the form of God, emptied himself and took the form of a servant. The incarnation is not a temporary disguise but an eternal union of divine and human natures.
Passages expressing this theme
- 1Tim 3:16 — And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up int
- Col 1:15 — Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
- Col 2:9 — For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
- Gal 4:4 — But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
- Heb 1:3 — Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the
- Heb 2:14 — Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil
- Heb 10:5 — Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
- Isa 7:14 — Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
- Isa 9:6 — For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prin
- Matt 1:23 — Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
- Mic 5:2 — But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, f
- Phil 2:6 — Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
- Phil 2:7 — But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
- Phil 2:8 — And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
- Rom 1:3 — Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;
- Rom 8:3 — For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: